Playing God Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Playing God Blu-ray Movie Review

Not Playing Mulder

Reviewed by Michael Reuben June 19, 2013

Even while he was flush with success on The X-Files, David Duchovny was working on an exit strategy. In 1995, two years into the hit show's seven-year run, Duchovny made Playing God, a small film with an off-beat script in which he tried to shed Agent Fox Mulder's skin for the role of a morally compromised anti-hero. The project must have looked promising. The villain was played by Oscar winner Timothy Hutton, the female lead was an attractive newcomer named Angelina Jolie (three years away from her breakthrough role in Gia), and the director, Andy Wilson (Ripper Street), had an extensive background in both theater and music videos.

Unfortunately, test audiences hated the result, and the film sat on Disney's shelf for two years. When Disney finally dumped it into theaters in October 1997, it was shunned by audiences and panned by critics (the late Roger Ebert was a rare exception).

With 20-20 hindsight, it's not hard to see that at least part of the problem may have been Duchovny himself. He may have played someone different from Mulder, but he also narrated the film in a dry, deadpan style that repeatedly reminded viewers of his ironic FBI alter ego, who was still very much in the public eye. Duchovny would have to go much further to get out from under Mulder's shadow. It wasn't until 2007, when he first assumed the role of foul-mouthed, substance-abusing and sex-addicted author Hank Moody in Showtime's series Californication, that he finally put his alien-hunting days behind him.

Today, it's easier to overlook the flaws of Playing God (which aren't minor) and appreciate the film for what it aspired to be, which is a pitch black screwball comedy about a dysfunctional love triangle. The film's trailer wisely played up the comedic angle, which aims for gallows humor rather than belly laughs.

Eugene Sands (Duchovny) was a rising star among surgeons until he fell victim to "the God complex". He developed a drug habit, killed a patient on the operating table and lost his license. Now he's just another junkie filled with regrets. But he happens to be at a bar buying drugs one night when two Russian hitmen gun down a member of rival organization. After a moment's hesitation, the former surgeon goes to the wounded man's aid and saves his life.

The victim works for an aspiring mobster named Raymond Blossom (Hutton), whose girlfriend, Claire (Jolie), assisted Eugene in saving the man's life. The next day, Blossom has his two chief hoods, Cyril and Yates (Andrew Tiernan and Gary Dourdan), pick up Eugene and "escort" him to a meeting. Eugene's voiceover for this sequence (partially included in the trailer) is typical of the film's style:

Life is all a matter of perspective. You really learn that as a doctor. A man with gangrene thinks he's lucky if he only loses a finger and not an arm. So if your life is going along well and you find yourself walking with two guys who look like Metallica rejects, you might think it was a bad day. On the other hand, if your life is in the toilet and you have a nasty fentanyl citrate hangover, you could say, "What the hell. I am at the beach."

Blossom is intrigued by Eugene, even more so when he senses that Claire is attracted to the former doctor. On a more practical note, the calculating hood finds it useful to have a skilled medical practitioner on whose services he can call when official channels aren't available. Blossom, who deals in counterfeit goods, is currently engaged in a feud with the Russian mob as he attempts to expand his business into new frontiers with a Chinese diplomat. Casualties are frequent, and Eugene's services are much in demand. Eugene knows he's making a deal with the devil, but it's not as if he has other options. Besides, he loves being a surgeon.

Soon, though, an FBI agent named Gage (Michael Massee) comes calling, threatening Eugene with charges for possession and practicing without a license unless he turns informant. From that point on, both Eugene's life and Playing God get messy.

It's unfortunate that earlier cuts of the film did not survive, because what was released to theaters feels like a series of compromises from the preview process that ultimately denatured Mark Haskell Smith's original script. Having laid out multiple plot threads, including one involving a pair of dimwitted strung-out hitmen played by John Hawkes and Will Stewart, director Wilson seems to be slamming through each storyline at warp speed as if there were a bonus for reaching the end in under 100 minutes. Everything gets short shrift, and it's never clear where the movie's focus lies. Is it about Eugene's redemption? About his feud with Blossom? About ending Blossom's criminal career? About the FBI's dubious practices in the pursuit of law enforcement? Or about the rivalry of two morally compromised men for Claire's affections, which fluctuates in importance from scene to scene? (A love scene between Claire and Eugene was shot and included in the trailer, but dropped from the film.) The only element that survived the editing room at any length was an elaborate car chase involving three identical SUVs as a diversion, but even that gets tossed away, because somehow Eugene knows exactly which vehicle to follow. (How he knows is never explained.)

Playing God is worth seeing for its setup, for individual performances by Duchovny, Hutton, Jolie and Hawkes, and for intimations of what might have been. Just go in with low expectations, keep your eye on the main players, and ignore the rest.

Playing God Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Photographed by Anthony Richmond (Legally Blonde) in a stylized, slightly over-exposed style that exaggerates the Southern California sun, Playing God looks far superior on Mill Creek's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray than it did in its 1998 DVD appearance. The source material is in decent shape with very little print damage (far superior to the accompanying Color of Night), and sharpness and detail are superior throughout. Colors in many scenes appear to be somewhat bleached out by contrast, but in others (e.g., the Russian nightclub) they are fully saturated, which indicates that the bleaching is by design and consistent with DP Richmond's visual concept for the film.

The average bitrate of 19.00 Mbps is somewhat low for a film that has a number of scenes of rapid action, including shootouts and an extended car chase near the end, but these are counterbalanced by lengthy dialogue scenes with little or no movement. As a result, compression artifacts are minor to non-existent.

Playing God Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Playing God was released to theaters with a 5.1 soundtrack, and the DVD released by Disney's Buena Vista Home Video in 1998 was encoded with Dolby Digital 5.1. However, in a move more commonly seen from Echo Bridge, Mill Creek has provided only a 2.0 track encoded as DTS-HD MA 2.0. The track gets the job done, providing clear dialogue and reproducing the lively score by prolific British composer Richard Hartley, who has composed for numerous U.K. TV series and films, though he will probably be best remembered for orchestrating The Rocky Horror Picture Show. But Playing God is, at least in part, a gangster film, and it involves several shootouts, one car chase and several settings with distinctive sonic environments. The omission of its original multi-channel soundmix is inexcusable, and I am docking its score accordingly.

Playing God Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

A trailer (480i; 1.33:1) is available from a popup menu during playback.

Playing God Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Disney has consistently mistreated Playing God. It wrecked it with previews, gave it a subpar, non-anamorphic DVD release, and has now handed it off to Mill Creek for a Blu-ray release with a second-rate soundtrack. Some films get no respect. This one is no undiscovered classic, but it deserved better. Definitely worth a watch, and this is probably the only version on Blu we're likely to see.